Marion Jones sentenced to 6 months in prison

Published 9:27 am Friday, January 11, 2008

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Marion Jones was sentenced Friday to six months in prison for lying about using steroids and a check-fraud scam, despite her plea that she not be separated from her two young children “even for a short period of time.”

“I ask you to be as merciful as a human being can be,” she said.

Last October, Jones admitted she lied to a federal investigators in November 2003 when she denied using performance-enhancing drugs. She said she took a designer steroid “several times before the Sydney Olympics and continued using it after.”

The sentence completes a stunning fall for the woman who was once the most celebrated female athlete in the world. She won three gold and two bronze medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.